[audio:http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/TheGreen_12192014_ArtsPlaylist_PaintUSA.mp3|titles= Delaware Public Media's Cathy Carter interviews Emile Klein about his multimedia exhibit, “You’re U.S.".]
A new multimedia exhibit at the Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover aims to tell the stories of everyday Americans, including Delawareans.
Emile Klein is a classically trained portrait painter who recently biked through 50 states to document America.
Throughout his journey, the artist stopped at the homes of short term sponsors, trading portraits for temporary room and board. While he painted, Klein also recorded conversations with his subjects.
The result is a multimedia exhibit, “You’re U.S,” currently on display at the Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover.
Klein says the project made him realize that everyone has a story to tell.
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“Each of these people give me some revelation- from staying with the nuns that you’ll see in here, to staying with a woman in a lean- to, to staying in Section 8 housing to staying in a mansion with a rodeo owner," said Klein. "It’s really varied in American experience.”
In the Southbridge section of Wilmington, the artist met barbershop owner, Jonathan "Runn" Wilson.
“And it turns out he’d been running an educational program in one of the poorest parts of Wilmington and as kind of the extra plus for the students, they could come later that day and they could rap there in the evenings," said Klein. "And when I got there I found out something else about Runn which was really shocking but you’ll have to come to the exhibition for that.”
The “You’re U.S” exhibit is on view at the Biggs Museum through January 11.
This piece is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
